


8 Lives Short

by Juju3k16, Skiddows



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Amity is a Bobcat, Angst, Animal Traits, Beastars AU, Canon Bisexual Character, Canon Lesbian Character, Crimes & Criminals, Dark, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Inspired by BEASTARS, Lumity, Luz is an Otter, Minor Character Death, No Smut, Organized Crime, Undercover, Vigilantism, with a dark side, with a soft side
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:41:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28570911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juju3k16/pseuds/Juju3k16, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skiddows/pseuds/Skiddows
Summary: TOH Beastars!AUIn a world where predator and prey live together in harmony, things are never quite as they seem.Amity Blight, a young bobcat attending Cherryton Academy, holds a dangerous secret she must hide at all costs. Her very life and the lives of countless others depends on it. When Luz Noceda, an unusual otter with a dark past, comes into her life things become a lot more complicated for both girls.How will they handle the twisted threads of fate that have brought them together?
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 53
Kudos: 194





	1. Amity

The droning voice of a teacher. Quiet scratching pens. Hushed conversations held behind not-so-subtle paws. The huffed breathing and drumming fingers of a bored student. It all washed over Amity in a haze as she stared, unseeing, at her lecturer. Some distant part of herself knew that she should be paying attention. Her academic record had to be nothing less than perfect after all. If only she could find the will to care about whatever it was he was talking about. 

The golden beam of sunlight angling through the tall window was far more interesting to her in that moment. It warmed her fur in a way that made her feel drowsy and filled her head with soothing white noise. Head resting on a paw, she watched tiny dust motes flicker in and out of view as they caught the light, her sharp, feline eyes latching onto them for brief seconds before they vanished again. Little glowing specks that danced across her vision like ghosts floating on a breeze. The world around her had felt oddly muted lately. Grey and cold. It made that warm beam of light all the more appealing.

Was she perpetuating a stereotype? Probably. If her parents knew she was giving in to her feline desires to bask in the sun they would lecture her for hours on appropriate public behaviour. As a bobcat, she was special. Her species was endangered, according to her family anyway. Bobcat numbers were actually fairly stable now but that didn’t play into the narrative her parents liked to portray and there was nothing more important to them than _appearing_ important. So they were ‘endangered’. That made them _special_. Being rich socialites and business owners on top of that meant that they had a reputation to uphold. Acting like a lazy house cat would not do for someone of her status. 

It felt really nice though, so she ignored the haughty, judgemental voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like her mother and let her eyes drift closed, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face and dreamily imagining herself lying in a sunny meadow somewhere far away from here. Somewhere with a cool breeze and a bright blue sky filled with big, puffy white clouds. Somewhere far, _far_ away from this dark, cold, lonely place she was stuck in.

She was startled from her dazed daydreaming by the sharp trill of the school bell ringing throughout the classroom. It echoed loudly in her sensitive ears like a shrill scream and she sat up so suddenly that the hyena sharing her desk shot an annoyed look her way.

“Get your ass movin. We’re gonna be late for next period.” 

She turned, blinking, to look at the gruff carnivore beside her, but she was already making her way to the door, having left Amity behind without so much as a backward glance. Huffing at the predictable reaction from her so-called friend, Amity stood to gather her things. She was vaguely surprised to discover she’d actually been taking notes during the lecture. Very neat, very detailed notes. She supposed there were some benefits to the never ending pressure her parents placed upon her to maintain excellent grades. Apparently she could take notes in her sleep. That was good to know.

Having finally gathered her things, she slung her book bag over her shoulder and made her way to the door, spare books and notes clutched tightly to her chest. She was the last to leave the classroom but, despite her desk-mate’s complaints to the contrary, she would be the first to arrive at the next one. She always was. It was hard to be late to classes when you did nothing in between them. Amity had no time or energy for the lingering conversations with friends or planning for school clubs that her schoolmates so eagerly enjoyed. Not when there were far more important things to be thinking about.

The days had been blending together more than usual lately, her mind focused only on the coming weekend when she would finally get the chance to do something meaningful again. Until then, she found herself floating between classrooms and her dorm in a haze, eyes glazed over, lost in thought. She moved through the halls as if on auto-pilot, students blurring by her, fading into the background unseen. Or maybe she was the one that went unseen.

Boscha, the striped hyena she had been forced to spend all of her time around since childhood, was strutting beside her like she owned the place. She certainly seemed to think she did and, in some ways, she was right. Her bright pink dyed hair and stripes were a neon glowing sign declaring she followed no rules but her own. Boscha revelled in having all eyes and ears on her. Thrived on the attention of others, no matter how she got it, which often led to her being cruel and violent to make sure everyone knew she was in charge. That she was important. That she should be feared and respected. Amity just thought she was a bitch.

She glanced over at the hyena and rolled her eyes. Boscha had been rambling on about some inane student gossip in that signature snide tone of hers for a while now and was so enamored with the sound of her own voice she had yet to notice that Amity wasn’t listening to a word she said. 

In fact, Boscha hadn’t noticed that Amity hadn’t said a word to her in days. She’d barely said a word to anyone at all outside of classes. The self-induced silence made Amity feel a little like a ghost wafting through the halls of Cherryton Academy, much like those little specks she’d been watching so avidly in the sunlight.

Students parted around them as they walked, never daring to come close. It was helpful in a way. It kept them at arm’s length, out of the potential danger that came with associating with her. It also meant she didn’t need to pay attention to where she was going, which was nice. But it was terribly lonely. Her only companions were the ones forced upon her by her overbearing, controlling parents in order to maintain business connections and there was no hope of meeting new ones. No point either. No matter how much she craved real connections, she could never have them. Never allow anyone to get close. Never allow herself to put them at risk. It would be selfish and cruel.

So a ghost she would remain. A specter haunting the school. 

A blight. 

How appropriate. Her family certainly lived up to their name. Blights upon Bonesborough. Blights upon Cherryton Academy. And Amity? She was a blight upon the Blights. Not that they knew the true extent of that of course and, if she had anything to say about it, they never would. She just had to maintain her role as the perfect student. The perfect high society princess. The perfect upperclassmen on track for becoming the next Beastar. As long as she played her part, her parents would leave her alone. And she needed them to if she was going to keep doing what she had been doing for all these years. What she was planning on doing again this coming weekend.

She was yanked violently from her thoughts by a sudden impact somewhere around her knees. The world tilted sharply around her with a jerk and Amity was sent sprawling to her chest on the floor, her legs whipped right out from under her. Landing with a heavy thud, all of the air rushed out of her lungs as her books and notes went scattering from her paws across the hallway. Boscha’s cackling laugh echoed mockingly in her ears as she lay there, dazed and confused, head spinning slightly, on the cold tiles of the hallway. What the hell had hit her so hard?

Something squirming beneath her brought the world around her back into focus and, startled, she fought to roll over. When she eventually got onto her back, her eyes latched onto an otter girl struggling to free herself from where she was tangled up under Amity’s legs and skirt. An embarrassed flush crawled across her skin that sent fur fluffing up all along her neck and Amity scrambled away from the girl. Standing on unsteady feet, she tried to regain some of her composure by brushing off her pristine white uniform with as much dignity as she could scrape together. It was in rather short supply after being so unceremoniously thrown to the ground though so she settled for glaring down at her assailant in annoyance.

“Watch it, nitwit!” She snapped, ears folding low over her head. A young, brown rabbit that she recognised as Augustus, a member of the student council, was helping the girl to her feet and Amity felt a hot wave of indignant irritation flash through her. Her own ‘friend’ certainly hadn’t bothered to do a damn thing to help her in any way. In fact, she was still laughing at Amity like she’d just witnessed the funniest thing in the history of comedy. Shooting the hyena an annoyed look, she had to bite back the urge to growl at her. Unable to do much else for fear of attracting unwanted parental attention, she was forced to redirect her anger toward the otter instead.

Any angry remarks died on her lips though, the moment she realised that the girl was already rushing to gather her things unprompted, a profoundly guilty look twisting her soft features.

“Oh my gosh, I’m _so_ sorry about that!” She said, clutching Amity’s notes and books tightly to her chest as she stared up at her remorsefully. Her deep brown eyes were very striking and Amity found it hard to look away, especially with her giving Amity that embarrassed little smile. 

It was just as hard not to notice how her mop of short, dark brown hair had fallen into her face in a frazzled mess or how the chocolatey fur on her arms and legs was mussed up from being trapped underneath Amity. Or the way she had wrapped her long tail around her legs, the end thumping against the ground in a clear sign of discomfort. She could see that same discomfort on her face too, ears pitched back flat against her head and wide open eyes staring back at Amity. The little smile was replaced with an embarrassed grimace and, oh God, Amity had been staring! Her throat suddenly felt kind of dry. Were her ears getting warm? And what was that weird fluttery feeling in her chest? What the hell was _wrong_ with her?!

She was so distracted that she missed the moment the otter scurried forward to awkwardly shove her things into her arms before bounding back towards Augustus, pushing him down the corridor in a frenzied rush. 

“How about we get back to that tour ay, Gus?” She said, voice loudly chipper but eyes lowered to the ground. She yelped another apology at Amity over her shoulder and, just like that, they were gone. They both vanished around the corner as quickly as they had appeared and Amity was left standing in the hall with a still snickering Boscha, utterly baffled and staring after the girl who had thrown her so off balance. Quite literally.

What on Earth had just happened? Heart racing, she could feel the long fur on her neck and cheeks still puffed up and had to reach up to smooth it down. She’d been strangely flustered by the entire encounter and that alone was enough to confuse her further. Amity Blight didn’t get _flustered_. 

No, she decided she was annoyed. That was it. 

The girl had knocked her over and then vanished without even so much as an introduction. Though she _had_ apologised and picked up her things for her... But it had still been rude of her to run Amity over! Not to mention Boscha had done nothing but laugh at her misfortune! So no, she wasn’t flustered. That hot, bubbly feeling in her gut was anger for sure. She was definitely just mad. What was startling though, was realising that it was the first thing she’d felt other than apathy in ages and she couldn’t, for the life of her, fathom why.

“What a total weirdo. She was running around on all fours like a savage.” Boscha’s voice snapped Amity back to reality and she looked over at her. She was smirking at the corridor the otter girl had practically sprinted down as if she could still see her, one paw resting on her cocked hip. Amity wasn’t sure who exactly the little pose was meant to impress. The other students had all scattered by now and they were mercifully alone in the hall. No one was around to see Amity’s weird reaction to… whatever that had been.

“What otter is strong enough to knock over something twice its size? The girl must be some kinda freak,” Boscha continued, turning her sneer towards Amity and raising her brows like she was waiting for her to agree. After years of having to put up with Boscha, Amity was used to letting the girl’s bullying and general bitchiness roll off her shoulders. Used to just ignoring it and going about her day because there was nothing else she _could_ do. Boscha would not be told what to do and she certainly wasn’t going to change any time soon so Amity had given up the effort of getting her to be less of an asshole a long time ago. She didn’t have the energy to try anymore. But something about that comment had rubbed her the wrong way and she felt her hackles unexpectedly rising at the girl for the first time in years.

Then the bell was ringing again and she felt her heart leap into her throat. She was late for class. In all the years she’d been attending Cherryton Academy, she had never once been late for a class and now, thanks to Boscha and that… that _otter girl_ , her perfect record was ruined. Oh, she was _livid_.

Clamping down hard on the urge to bare her teeth, she turned and stormed off, tail flicking angrily behind her and purposefully ignoring Boscha’s angry calls for her to wait. She may not be allowed to antagonize the girl but she didn’t have to put up with her either. She was already late as it was.

Amity spent the rest of the day thoroughly distracted. She’d been distracted before sure, but this was different. Her previously sluggish thoughts were now buzzing in her head, so much so that she failed to take any notes at all in her final classes of the day. She couldn’t stop thinking about the incident in the hallway or the otter that had caused it all. 

She’d never seen that girl before and Amity was fairly certain she’d heard her mention a tour, so she had to be a new student. Why would she be transferring in the middle of the semester though? 

She’d been strangely… _fluffy_ for an otter. Boscha had also been right about her being weirdly strong, even though Amity would rather die than admit that. Boscha didn’t need anything to fan her already overinflated ego and Amity telling her she’d been right about anything would send the girl into orbit with all the hot air she’d be producing. But the otter _had_ knocked her over fairly easily and Amity had to be nearly half again her size. 

It was all so confusing and she found her mind fixating on the strange new girl. It was frankly quite irritating. It was bad enough that she’d run Amity over and made her late for class, but now she was running around in her head too? Rude.

Annoyed, confused and still weirdly flustered, Amity decided she would not be able to handle an entire evening with Boshca without losing her mind, so when Skara, another of her parentally pre-approved friends, asked Amity to hang out with her at the theatre club, Amity jumped on the opportunity. It wasn’t like she had anything better to do after all and the theatre kids were always entertaining. The club was a welcome treat. 

Being around all that creative energy was refreshing. She’d always been an inherently creative person and she’d take any opportunity to soak up some of that theatre kid energy that she could, even if she could never openly explore that side of herself. A Blight performing like a commoner? Her parents would have heart attacks at the very thought. A rather appealing reason to join actually, if you asked her.

So, eager to enjoy a little vicarious escapism, Amity found herself sitting amongst the theatre band, idly listening to their excited chatter about the current compositions they were working on while she completed homework for the day. The background noise of their chatter was just the distraction from her weird day that Amity had needed. She glanced up briefly at the sound of light, high laughter to see Skara enthusiastically leaning over sheet music with three other members of the band. She was in her element here and it was nice to see the lioness coming out of her shell without Boscha around to stifle her. 

Looking at her now and seeing how happy and open she was amongst her fellow club members, Amity felt bad for ignoring Skara the way she so often did. Skara was a sweet, gentle girl that only joined in on the bullying her group tended to enact on the smaller, weaker animals because she couldn't stand up to Boscha. In fact, if she weren’t forced to associate with her, Skara would most likely have been one of Boscha’s many victims. Unfortunately she, like Amity, was stuck with Boscha because of their parents. 

Amity was fairly certain she might actually have befriended Skara naturally if their circumstances had been different. They were both gentle natured, despite being predators. They were also both artists, if in different ways and Amity would very likely have been coming to this club as a member if she’d been able to. They could have met as fellow performers. Instead, they’d been forced together by their parents at a very young age and that had left a bitter taste in Amity’s mouth about the entire relationship. It wasn’t Skara’s fault of course, but that didn’t make it any easier. They weren’t friends. They were just mutual accessories. She might also be just a tiny bit jealous of the fact that Skara got to openly explore her creativity while Amity was forced to suppress hers.

A commotion at the door drew her attention and when Amity looked up from the complex math homework she’d been working on she found herself frozen to her seat, eyes wide and body rigid at the sight of a familiar brown form barging into the room. It was _her_ . The otter girl. She was _here_! A hot flash of annoyance sent Amity’s fur ruffling again and she frowned, irritably trying to press the fur around her neck back down with a paw. 

She’d come to the theatre club to distract herself from the girl and now she was invading her space _again_? Watching her carefully, Amity saw how she bounced from person to person with apparent ease, animatedly chatting to anyone that would give her the time of day. The girl certainly wasn’t shy. 

She made her way excitedly to the theatre director, chattering to the peacock brightly while he nodded at her with a big smile spread across his beak. Amity couldn’t hear what they were saying but it was apparent that she was joining the club. That was interesting. So she was an artist of some kind too. With a happy little hop, the otter shook the director’s wing and then darted away to go introduce herself to the other crew members. 

Her presence was a huge disruption to the quiet chatter from earlier and Amity found herself unable to look away. Her boisterous attitude had changed the entire atmosphere of the club. The room felt bubbly and energized and Amity could feel that energy tingling under her skin like electricity.

She found herself wondering what it was the girl specialised in. With her loud, extroverted personality she might assume she was an actress but she appeared to be lingering around the backstage crew so maybe not. Blinking with the sudden realization that she was staring again, Amity huffed and tried to brush her curiosity aside. She had no reason to care what the new girl got up to in her spare time.

The otter was chatting to one of the stage hands when she glanced over in Amity’s direction. It had been the briefest of looks, her attention almost instantly back on the elephant she’d been talking to but then she froze and did a double take. Her eyes locked onto Amity’s and widened with recognition. Even from across the room, Amity could clearly see the deep brown colour of them brighten a little and something in her fluttered. 

The girl was all warm tones of chocolatey brown from head to toe and, combined with her sunny attitude, she reminded Amity of the beam of sunlight she’d been basking in earlier that day. Looking at her felt a little like drinking a cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day and _oh God, what the hell was she thinking_ ?! Flushing once more and having to, yet again, pat down her ruffling fur, she clamped that ridiculous thought down hard, shoving it deep down to be ignored. What the hell was up with this otter? Worse, what the hell was up with _Amity_? She’d never been so hyper focused on another person before, especially one she hadn’t even officially met yet and oh look, she was coming over now. Shit.

The girl was bouncing over to Amity with a bright smile spread across her face. Literally bouncing. She hopped from side to side on all fours in big gamboling leaps, seemingly without so much as a second thought about how silly she looked. Amity was reminded of what Boscha had said about her in the corridor earlier but she didn’t have much time to think about it because the girl was already popping up onto her hind legs right in front of her, grinning broadly.

“Hey! It’s you! I’m so glad you’re here!” She said with such enthusiasm that Amity was momentarily stunned. Having the girl’s attention focused so fully on her made that fluttery feeling in her chest flair to life and Amity glowered at her irritably. There was no way this girl was for real. Amity had met many people in her young life thanks to her parents’ incessant networking parties and in her experience no one was ever this friendly and open. Not honestly anyway. If they were it was all an act to lure you in. She had never fallen for it before and she wouldn’t now.

“Oh, it’s _you_ . The inconsiderate otter that knocked me over in the halls and made me late for class. You should watch where you’re going, running around like that,” she said irritably and the other girl flinched, her eyes darting away uncomfortably for a second before turning back to look up at Amity with clear remorse. Ok, maybe that had been a little harsh. The girl _had_ apologized after all. Still, Amity didn’t like the weird buzzy feeling she was giving her so she forced down her guilt over snapping at her and huffed.

“Yeah… I’m really sorry about that. I was just so excited to get to see the school, guess I wasn’t paying attention,” she said, one paw rubbing awkwardly at the fur on her neck and Amity noticed she had wrapped her tail around her legs again, the tip tapping lightly against her foot. A nervous habit perhaps? 

The immediate apology startled Amity and she frowned. She’d been expecting some sort of push back. For the facade to slip. But the girl looked like she genuinely felt bad about what had happened and that was a little unsettling. She was far too willing to accept blame for something that Amity knew she’d probably been partly responsible for. She hadn’t been paying attention to where she’d been walking after all. Granted she didn’t usually need to but still… The otter perked up a little and gave Amity a small smile before extending her paw.

“I just realised I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Luz! Luz Noceda. It’s really nice to meet you…” She trailed off, raising her brows at Amity questioningly and Amity rolled her eyes. Fine, she’d play her little game. She took Luz’s paw and gave it one firm shake before releasing it like it might catch fire.

“Amity Blight.” Luz’s smile widened into a lopsided grin.

“Cute name. It suits you!” Amity’s fur instantly fluffed up all around her neck and her ears twitched. Had she just called her name _cute_? Ridiculous. The nerve of this girl! She was not cute! She was fierce and powerful and why did she care what this stupid otter thought anyway? Luz didn’t seem to notice Amity’s reaction and plowed on happily, paws gesturing animatedly as she spoke. “Are you part of the theatre club too? I’m gonna be working with the art crew so maybe we can hang out here!”

She was bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet and staring up at Amity eagerly, her tail thumping against her foot a little faster now. Flustered and annoyed without really knowing why, Amity grunted and looked away. 

“No, I’m just here with my friend. I have more important things to deal with than clubs,” she muttered. She caught the way Luz deflated in apparent disappointment out of the corner of her eye and found herself turning back to look directly at her again. She tilted her head up at Amity and gave her a hopeful little smile.

“Awe, that’s too bad. Hopefully I’ll see you around though, if your friend is part of the club!” The idea sent a weird thrill down Amity’s spine that immediately set her on edge. She did not like all these weird new feelings. Not one bit. “Well, I’m gonna go mingle a little. See ya around, Amity Blight.” She shot Amity a set of finger guns, clicking her teeth for good measure before she was off, darting back across the room to chat to the other animals milling about. Amity could only stare. 

Who the heck _was_ this girl? Why did she feel the sudden desire to join Skara here more often? This was absolutely ridiculous. She had far more important things to be dealing with and she could not afford distractions like Luz Noceda. The girl was an annoyance. A bright, bubbly, fascinating annoyance. 

She watched as Luz talked amicably with her crewmates and felt a hot, angry bubbling in her gut at the way the girl was so happily chatting to them in the same way she’d just been talking to Amity. Like Amity was just another person here. Why the hell did it matter to her if the girl wanted to be equally as friendly with everyone else here as she’d been with her anyway? Luz could do whatever she liked, Amity had no reason to care. But she _did_ care and it _really_ pissed her off.

Frowning at Luz’s back from across the room, Amity decided that what bothered her was the fact that it had to be an act. She was faking it to get attention and Amity _hated_ fakes. She’d dealt with far too many and she really did not feel like having another around. That _had_ to be it. It was the only explanation.

Luz couldn’t possibly be this nice. Not in this school. Not in this town. Because if she was as open and kind as she seemed this place would _eat her alive_ and, for some reason, that thought terrified Amity.

* * *

And so it begins. This is a collaborative fic I've been working on with [JulipCord](https://www.instagram.com/julipcord/) (known here as Juju3k16), an amazing artist who had the big brain idea of Lumity, but make it beastars! We've been planning and plotting and you guys are not ready! Basically we're working together to create the plot (which often involves us squealing over the increasingly adorable fluffy Lumity scenes we think of), I'm doing the writing and she's making the fantastic chapter art. I mean come on look at those pictures! Go give her love on instagram because girl deserves it!

Words form the artist herself: get ready to suffer my cute wrath :3

Between this and A Luminous Bond, updates aren't exactly going to be super fast but I'm hoping I can update both fics once a month at least. Sadly as much as I'd love to spend all day writing, I have a full time job so I hope you guys can bare with me here.

Some notes of the characters: Luz is 16 (second year student) and Amity is 17 (third year student). There will obviously be no sexual themes of any kind in this fic but they're going to be dealing with some heavy shit and, thematically, it makes more sense for them to be older.


	2. Luz

Music blared loudly and suddenly to life in the small room, startling Luz out of a pleasant dream that was already fading. Vague memories of loving brown eyes gazing down at her slipped away as her own bleary eyes squinted in the blinding sunlight streaming in through her window. She found herself sprawled spread-eagle at the foot of her bed, legs thoroughly tangled up in her bedding and ears twitching at the sound of her alarm. She’d set the upbeat theme song to her current favourite anime as her wake up call in the hopes of starting off the day in a good mood, but in that moment all she wanted to do was launch her phone across the room to make it shut up. If only she could reach it. 

With a feeble little groan, she reached an arm out in the vague direction of her cellphone, resting cruelly on her bedside table so far away. She swiped a paw weakly at the air before letting it fall back to the mattress with a plop. The music continued to play and her hopes for a few more minutes of sleep were dashed.

Running that same paw over her sleep deprived face, she sat up with very obvious reluctance, arms flopping bonelessly to her sides as she smacked her lips. She _really_ had to learn to stop reading fanfiction so late at night and start going to bed at a less ungodly hour. But what was a girl supposed to do when the next Azura novel wasn’t due for release for another 4 months? She had to get her fix _somehow_ ! Last night she’d happened to pick the writings of her fellow fans as her poison of choice for the evening and she’d gotten so sucked into the awesome story she’d found that she just couldn’t put it down! She hadn’t _meant_ to read until 3am. The witching hour had just kind of... snuck up on her.

Her phone was still singing in loud, high pitched Japanese and she blinked blearily in its direction, glaring at the offending piece of tech with what was definitely not a pout on her face. If she wanted it to stop she’d need to find the willpower to stand, walk all the way to the bedside table, lift the phone, unlock it and then, finally, turn off the alarm. So many steps.

Groaning loudly, she flopped onto her face and rolled across the bed like the sleepy lump she was instead. Her paw smacked down onto the bedside table, but all she succeeded in doing was knocking the phone to the floor where it skidded across the hardwood to settle under her roommate’s bed. Another, much louder, groan cut over the music. There was nothing for it now. She would actually have to get out of bed. Exhaling deeply through her nose, she swung her legs over the edge of the mattress and sank to her knees on the floor so she could fish her phone out from under the bed on the other side of the room. The very empty and neatly made bed.

Skara had left early. Again. Considering it was only 6am, the lioness would have had to wake up ridiculously early to avoid interacting with Luz and she was fairly certain that was exactly what her roommate was doing. Avoiding her. Her paw curled around her phone at last and she sat back on the floor to turn off the alarm. Blessed silence filled the room and she let out a breath of relief. She loved that song, really she did, but it was definitely too preppy for this early in the morning when she’d only gotten about three hours of sleep.

Maybe it was for the best that Skara was doing everything she could to not spend time around Luz outside of the theatre club they were both a part of. Luz wasn’t sure if the girl actively disliked her, but she definitely would if she’d been here to be woken by what Luz now realised was a terrible choice for an alarm. Especially when she shared the room with another person. Forcing herself to get up with an exaggerated grunt, Luz glanced over at her roommate's bed and grimaced.

Skara seemed like a nice enough lioness. Sure, she hung out with Boscha a lot, but she was always smiling and friendly to everyone at the club. It stung a little that she was so clearly trying to avoid spending time with Luz. Skara always made sure to be out of the room before Luz woke and was either asleep before she got back to the room at night or just ignored her outright if she happened to be awake. Sighing quietly to herself, Luz turned away to make her own bed and get ready for the day ahead. 

It would have been nice to be on friendly terms with the person she had to share her living space with. When she’d transferred schools, Luz had been hoping things might be different here but it seemed like that had been wishful thinking on her part because, much like Skara, most of the students at Cherryton seemed to avoid her.

She slipped out of her room in the predator dorms and locked the door behind her, weaving her way through the tide of students headed to breakfast or early clubs and classes. No one even so much as looked up. The novelty of her being the new girl had worn off pretty quickly and now, just two weeks after she’d started there, the students had already seemed to forget she existed. Maybe it wasn’t so bad really. She sort of enjoyed the anonymity of it. Here, small as she was compared to most of the other students, people overlooked her. Sure, it was a little lonely walking down the halls unseen, but at least it was better than what she’d had to deal with in her old school. Much, much better.

She hunched her shoulders a little at the memories welling up in her head, paws gripping the straps of her backpack tightly. Ok so maybe, if she was being honest with herself, it wasn’t so great. Luz had always been social and outgoing by nature. She loved getting to meet new people and craved the friendships she’d been denied back home where they thought she was a… Well, she didn’t really want to think about that anymore. 

Frowning, she set her jaw, paws tightening further around the straps of her bag and making the fabric creak audibly. She didn’t _have_ to think about that anymore. She was free of that place now. Nobody here knew who she was. Or _what_ she was. 

Here, at Cherryton, she got to have a fresh start. 

Classes for the day passed by in a haze of concentration and note taking. The curriculum was a little more advanced than her old school but she was smart. She could handle the new workload, no problem. Especially since she didn’t have to do it alone. Gus and Willow had been more than happy to help. 

Thinking of her new friends brought a smile to her muzzle as she packed up her things at the end of the day. _Friends_. Everyone else may overlook her but they sure didn't. She and Gus had become fast friends on the day she’d arrived and, after his tour, he’d introduced her to Willow. A tall, gentle, if painfully shy cow who Luz had immediately taken a liking to. The girl was so soft and sweet and had a motherly air to her that Luz adored.

Between Willow’s kind (and surprisingly sassy when she was feeling confident) nature and Gus’s energetic nerdiness, Luz had found herself a little group that accepted her and she was ecstatic over it. She just wished she shared more classes with them. Gus may be in her year, despite being two years younger, but they only shared one history class together and Willow only had English Lit with her. The rest of the time they were separated.

On the bright side, they ate every meal together and hung out after school almost everyday. Like today. She’d promised to meet them in the gardening club before dinner so she could help Willow with a new flower bed she’d been planning and Luz couldn’t wait to get her paws dirty.

Backpack stuffed to bursting with all of her school books and art supplies, she hurtled down the halls of Cherryton with reckless abandon, often having to drop to all fours to weave between the legs of the taller animals around her. She’d noticed that doing that drew some odd looks but it had never really been an issue in the small town where she’d grown up and it was a hard habit to break now. It felt natural to run like this. Free. Besides, she was faster on four legs than two, which meant more time to spend with her friends. Her smile widened.

 _Friends_. She had those now.

She burst through the door leading out into the gardens and came to a screeching halt just shy of crashing into a table full of pots filled with an array of colourful flowers in all shapes and sizes. Stepping carefully around it, she popped back up onto her hind legs and dropped her backpack haphazardly on the ground near the table.

“Hi, guys! Luz is here!” She called, spreading her arms wide with a big grin. Willow looked up from where she was crouched next to the new flower bed, tiny gardening shovel in hoof and smiled at her warmly.

“Hi, Luz! You’re just in time. Think you could grab the pots on that tray for me? I have my hooves full over here and Gus is being _so_ very helpful today,” she grouched good naturedly, looking back over her shoulder to where Gus was propped up on another table with his fancy laptop resting on his bent knees. He had his face pressed almost right up to the screen so that all Luz could see of him was his tall brown ears. They tilted in Willow’s direction when she spoke, but he didn’t move from where he was tapping rapidly away at the keys.

“I’m totally helping. I’m providing moral support,” he said with an obvious grin in his voice. He drew a small, sky-blue flag with a little flower printed in the middle from his pocket and waved it above his head without looking up. “Go, Willow!”

Willow snorted and rolled her eyes at him in amusement, giving Luz a long-suffering look that just screamed ‘do you see what I’m dealing with here?’ Luz laughed heartily, thrilled to be part of this sort of friendly banter for the first time in her life. Friends were great.

“I gotcha, girl. One tray of flowers comin right up!” She trotted over to the table Willow had indicated, the same one she’d nearly knocked over upon arriving, and noticed that the flower pots were all sitting neatly on a wide tray with convenient little handles. Eager to make herself useful, she plucked the entire tray off the table without a thought, lifting it with ease despite the vast array of pots filled with soil and plants weighing it down. 

She spun on her foot with the tray clutched carefully in her paws, tail arcing up and back to help keep her balance. It was heavy but nothing she couldn’t handle as long as she was careful, so she made her way to Willow with a happy little hum. Willow glanced up as she came over and her eyes widened drastically, making Luz pause mid-step. 

Her stupefied expression confused Luz for half a second before realisation hit her and she stiffened. Oh _cramity_. This thing was half her size and packed with heavy stuff. She shouldn’t be able to lift it at all, nevermind carry it the few steps to Willow. She needed to fix this and fast! But what to do! Ok, ok, breathe. She had this. When in doubt turn on the old Noceda goofball charm and ham it up! With as believably exaggerated a yelp as she could make, Luz pretended to stumble under the weight of the tray, letting her arms give out so that it tipped forward towards Willow.

She lunged forward with a startled cry, her hooves grabbing the other side of the tray before it could drop everything to the stone tiles of the garden path. Lifting the tray away from Luz, she carefully set it down on the floor between them and looked back up at Luz with concern. Luz laughed awkwardly, rubbing a paw at the fur on the back of her neck as her tail thumped nervously at the ground.

“Sorry about that, Willow! Didn’t realise how heavy it would be! Guess I gotta work on these weak nerd arms,” she said, lifting an arm to pat lightly at her bicep and thanking whatever gods were out there that she had such thick fur.

“It’s ok, Luz, no harm done. Flowers are a lot more resilient than people think,” she chuckled. Her eyes drifted down to the large array of flower pots that had almost been shattered and she winced. “But… maybe just make a couple trips next time.” Relieved, Luz nodded eagerly at her friend.

“Will do!” She agreed before plopping down in the dirt beside Willow to help her dig holes for the flowers. Crisis averted. Score one for the old Noceda charm. 

Once Willow had pointed her to the right spots, Luz went to town on the dirt, scrabbling at it happily with her bare paws. She loved the feeling of it rolling between her clawed fingers. It brought up memories of summer days spent in the yard when she was a pup, digging up the garden to bury treasures for when she wanted to play pirates. She was pretty sure those shells and glittery stones from the creek were all still buried in that yard too, because she’d never been very good at finding them again.

Glancing over at her friend, Luz caught Willow rolling her eyes at her, clearly amused by her choice to ignore the gardening tools she’d set right next to Luz in favour of doing it the old fashioned way. They worked together in companionable silence after that, broken only by Willow’s occasional instruction on where the flowers should go. 

There was something strangely soothing about gardening. Luz had never bothered with it before, always much more interested in admiring the flora around her with an artist’s eye than actually taking care of it. But something about setting each little flower bush into its hole and carefully covering the roots with fresh soil was very relaxing. Almost meditative.

As she lowered a lovely bunch of sunny flowers into their new home, the soft yellow petals drew her eye and Luz found her thoughts drifting to Amity for some reason. The other students at Cherryton generally ignored her, true, but she’d definitely noticed how those striking eyes followed her and she couldn’t fathom why. There was an intensity to Amity Blight that Luz found intriguing, in an intimidating sort of way. She’d been watching her too, when she thought she could get away with it and Luz couldn’t quite figure the girl out.

She hung out with the popular kids, which might have given Luz the impression that she was just another stuck up rich girl, but she never seemed overly interested in being around them, always sort of quietly hovering at the edges of their group. Everyone seemed to know her too, or at least know of her, but Luz rarely saw her actually talking to anyone. People greeted her eagerly when she passed and she might nod or say a polite hello in return but for the most part she seemed unaware of everyone around her and never let anyone get close. In fact the crowd literally parted around her, which was kind of impressive in its own way.

What confused Luz most was why people were so friendly towards her when you considered who she spent most of her time with. Frankly Luz thought Boscha was a huge jerk and Amity was never far from the hyena.

She didn’t participate when Boscha and her little gang were being jerks to some poor innocent student but she also never intervened either, which infuriated Luz a little. After everything she’d experienced in her life, bullies were one thing she’d never been able to stand. Something about Amity seemed different though and she wanted to give the girl the benefit of the doubt.

She seemed angry a lot too. Or sad? It was hard to tell which, but whatever it was, Luz couldn’t recall ever seeing her smile. She often wondered if Amity was still mad at her over what had happened when they’d first met but that didn’t really feel right either. There was definitely something hidden behind that apathetic mask she wore all day and Luz was dying to know what it was that made her so broody and quiet all the time. The mystery that was Amity Blight fascinated her and she wanted to learn more about the girl, even if her glares could be kind of terrifying sometimes.

She was pulled very suddenly from her thoughts by a loud ringing coming from her cellphone. Excusing herself from the flowerbed, she dusted the dirt from her paws and pulled her phone out of the pocket in her school-issued white skirt. Checking the screen, she smiled faintly. Eda was calling to check up on her. With a quick tap to the screen and a glance over her shoulder to make sure she was mostly out of earshot, Luz answered the call.

“Hi, kiddo! How’s my favorite little weirdo?” Luz chuckled and shook her head. Typical Eda.

“Hey, Eda. I’m doing great! I’m glad you called, I missed you!” She said honestly and she could practically hear Eda’s fond eye roll on the other side of the call.

“I missed you too, kid. So how’re you liking Cherryton so far?” Luz paused in thought for a second, knowing there was more to the question than Eda would outright say. She was always hesitant to bring up Luz’s history in her old school, knowing Luz hated talking about it. She was very grateful for that, but she also knew Eda was worried she might be experiencing more of the same here and she wanted to reassure her.

“It’s definitely… different. But in a good way! Everyone seems pretty nice and this place is so huge. There’s so much to see! Gus showed me the essentials on his tour but I’ve been exploring a bit on my own.” She glanced over at her friends and smiled happily. “I think I’m gonna like it here.”

“The nerds treatin’ you ok?” she asked and Luz snorted. She’d told Eda all about her new friends when she’d called on Luz’s first day and Eda had immediately decided that they were complete goody-two-shoes geeks that were a perfect fit for Luz. Not an inaccurate assessment, Luz was happy to agree.

“Yeah, Eda. Willow and Gus are great,” she said with a laugh.

“That’s good to hear, kid. Sounds like the big move was the right call.” There was a heavy pause before she hesitantly spoke again. “How’re you holding up?” 

Luz stiffened and glanced back at her friends again. They weren’t listening from what she could tell, both politely going about their own business. She still turned a little further away from them, just in case.

“I’m ok, I guess. Have… have you heard anything?” She asked quietly, her shoulders hunching slightly in anticipation. The end of her long tail wrapped itself tightly around her legs in an old, comforting habit and she fought the urge to grab a hold of it. She wasn’t a pup anymore.

“Nothing new, but I’m still looking into things,” Eda replied, the regret evident in her voice and Luz couldn’t help the distressed sigh that slipped past her lips, her entire body sagging with disappointment. “Hey buck up, kiddo. We’ll figure it out, I promise. You just leave it to me and focus on school, ok?” 

Easier said than done but Luz knew better than to say that. Eda would only worry about her and she had plenty to worry about already.

“Right… yeah.” She glanced back over her shoulder to see Willow was watching her now, curious concern clouding her face. She’d need to wrap this up before she started asking questions Luz definitely wasn’t ready to answer. With another quiet sigh, she turned her attention back to her phone. “I’ve gotta run, Eda. Thanks for checking in.”

“No problem. I’ll call you again when I find out more, yeah? Stay out of trouble, will ya?” The gentle concern in her voice was enough to tighten Luz’s throat so she huffed out a weary laugh to try and lighten the mood and ease the burning building in the corner of her eyes.

“That’s rich, coming from you,” she said and Eda cackled loudly. The sound immediately washed some of Luz’s anxiety away.

“Ya got me there! Bye, kid. Say hi to the nerds for me,” Eda laughed.

“I will. Bye, Eda.” With that she ended the call and let out a long, quiet breath. So no news then. That really, really sucked but there wasn’t much she could do about it from here and if she didn’t stop acting so down, her friends were going to notice. 

With a determined little huff, she tucked her phone into her pocket again and gave her cheeks a sharp pat, as if that might shake off the funk creeping into her head. She twirled on the spot, using the motion to uncurl her blasted tail from her legs and put on a big grin for her friends. Willow was still watching her wearily but when she saw the big smile on Luz’s face she returned it with her own gentle one.

“Eda says hi!” Luz said, in the most naturally chipper voice she could manage. It seemed to work as Willow’s shoulders relaxed as she spoke.

“It’s nice of her to check in on you like that,” she said and Luz’s smile widened into a grin that felt more genuine at the thought of her owlish mentor.

“Eda _is_ pretty great,” she agreed before trotting over to Willow and plopping back down in the dirt. “Now, let’s get back to work. These flowers aren’t gonna plant themselves and it’s almost dinner time!” She rubbed her paws together eagerly and Willow chuckled at her.

“We’d be done sooner if _someone_ decided to help out with more than just moral support,” she said, shooting Gus a look that he very much didn’t acknowledge. Luz looked over at him to see that he was still entirely zoned into his laptop, paws moving in a blur with his frenzied typing.

“What’s got you so focused over there?” She asked. He didn’t look up but his ears twitched in her direction to show he’d heard.

“I’m working on a new coding project for the tech club. We’ve been trying to crack this all semester and I think I finally found the script that’s been messing up the program but every time I…” Luz stared at him blankly, already hopelessly lost as he went more and more in depth, using jargony tech words she couldn’t even begin to understand. It was like he was no longer talking to her, but rather at her, using her simple question as a way to work himself through whatever problem he was having with his code. 

She grinned at him broadly, appreciating a fellow nerd in full geeking out mode. Gus sounded just like her when she was rambling at her friends about fanfiction and art. It was very endearing. She was sure the same fond look of exasperation they often gave her was plastered all over her own face right now as she watched Gus go. _Gosh_ it was so good to have friends.

The afternoon break before dinner passed quickly after that, with Willow and Luz working steadily to plant all of the flowers while Gus toiled away at his code. By the time the dinner bell rang they were already packing up the gardening tools and washing up so they made a hasty trip to the dining hall.

With the serving areas split into sections for herbivores and carnivores, Luz had to separate from her friends to retrieve her meal. The line for smaller carnivores was, thankfully, still fairly empty so she was quick to grab her plate. Willow had gotten stuck at the end of her line behind a lot of larger herbivores, which meant that Luz and Gus were ready long before she would be. She waved them away when they offered to wait with her though, so they headed into the seating area to snag themselves a table instead.

They sat together, chatting idly until they heard a loud, familiar scoff. Luz twisted in her seat to see Willow trembling in front of Boscha, who was smirking at the gentle girl with such cruelty that Luz felt her hackles immediately start to rise. Willow was clutching her meal tray in her hooves and had evidently been on her way to meet them when Boscha confronted her.

“Oh, if it isn’t halfwit Willow,” Boscha sneered and Willow visibly flinched. “How about you get the hell out of my way, before I decide I’m hungry for something a little tastier than tofu?” Willow’s eyes were downcast and she was stammering, her shoulders hunched almost to her ears in fear. When she didn’t immediately comply, Boscha seemed to grow more irritated and she stepped forward with a low growl. “I said move, _cow_.” Willow flinched back again.

“I… I can’t. There’s nowhere to go,” she murmured quietly and it was true. She was surrounded by tables on both sides and her way back was cut off by the tail end of a line of large animals that were very pointedly ignoring the confrontation. They all knew better than to get involved with Boscha. Willow swallowed hard and shifted wearily, still unable to meet the hyena’s eyes. “If… you could just step back a little I could…”

“Are _you_ telling _me_ to move?” Boscha let out a loud indignant scoff and glared at Willow menacingly. “You’ve got some nerve, _prey_. What makes you think you can tell me what to do?”

“I wasn’t…. I just…” She let out a loud, terrified yelp when Boscha viciously slapped the bottom of her lunch tray, sending it flying up to smack her directly in the face. Salad, dressing and milk were flung all over her, lettuce and tomato getting caught in her hair and staining her once white uniform. The tray clattered to the ground and Willow stood in utter shock, frozen as bits of her dinner dripped down her cheeks and over her glasses. Tears gathered in her eyes and she whimpered as Boscha began cackling uproariously at her, unable to do anything but clutch at her skirt and cower before the bully. It was all Luz could take.

This wasn’t the first time this had happened. Boscha seemed to find them wherever the hell they went and she relished the chance to pick on poor Willow who never fought back, despite being so much larger. Luz would have done something about it a long time ago but Willow had very explicitly asked her not to intervene. Something about wanting to learn to stand up for herself, overcoming her fear and not wanting Luz to get herself in trouble. 

But this was the last damn straw and Luz had had enough.

She leapt from her seat and stomped over to the still laughing hyena, a furious glare darkening her features at the sight of Willow trying in vain to wipe herself clean with trembling hooves. As she came to a halt behind the bully, paws clenched at her side, she barely registered Gus slipping past her to get to Willow.

“Hey!” She snapped furiously and Boscha froze mid laugh. She turned back to see who had been so bold as to approach her and tilted her head in confusion when she didn’t immediately spot anyone. Luz’s eyes narrowed in annoyance. “Down here, jerk! What the hell is your problem?!” 

Boscha’s eyes dropped to see Luz standing in front of her and she snorted in a way that made it clear she thought Luz _had_ to be kidding before her face pulled into an innocent smile that fooled absolutely no one.

“What? I was just helping her enjoy her dinner. She looked awfully hungry.” Her smile twisted into a challenging sneer and Luz’s blood boiled at the sight of it. She glanced past Boscha’s shoulder to see Gus awkwardly trying to help Willow clean herself up when he could barely reach her waist. Willow looked miserable, sniffling as she tried to find an unsoiled part of her uniform to clean her sticky glasses on. A growl built its way up Luz’s throat, low and deep and she snapped her eyes back to Boscha, glare deepening.

“You’re full of shit, Boscha! You did that on purpose!” She snapped and Boscha scoffed in return, setting one paw on her hip as she loomed over Luz. The hyena stood head and elbows taller than Luz but she would be damned if she let this puffed up asshole intimidate her.

“And what if I did? Who gives a shit?” She asked flippantly. Luz’s paws tightened.

“Apologize! And pay for her dinner!” An amused snort burst out of Boscha and she rolled her eyes.

“As if! Who do you think you are, half-pint?! I don’t have to do a damn thing. I’m not gonna say sorry just because the cow is a clumsy idiot.” Oh, Luz was going to wipe that smug little smirk right off her stupid face. The growl that was still rumbling in her throat deepened and she stepped towards Boscha menacingly. The cafeteria had gone deathly silent around them. Everyone was staring, watching this tiny otter trying to take on Boscha, but Luz didn’t give a damn about any of them. No one treated her friends like this and got away with it!

“Apologize or I’ll make you!” She snarled but Boscha only started cackling again and the sound of it grated at Luz’s nerves.

“What are you gonna do about it, hm?” Boscha eyed her up and down like she was inspecting a particularly amusing piece of trash and smirked. “I’m like twice your size and you’re built like a fucking doll. Don’t make me stuff you back into whatever toy box you crawled out of, you fluffy little _freak_!”

Luz’s vision tunneled. She saw red. Voices swam in her ears and she felt darkness pull at the edges of her consciousness as memories threatened to overwhelm her. Memories of jeering faces, sneering smiles, cruel laughter and that word. Freak. Chanting at her from a hundred directions in voices that grew louder with every second until her ears were practically buzzing. Over and over and over.

Freak. 

_Freak_. 

**_Freak!_ **

Instinct took over and her fury flared white hot. Her shoulders hunched, back arched and all the exposed fur along her arms and neck stood straight up in an instinctual effort to make herself look larger. More threatening. That growl she’d just barely been suppressing ripped from her throat in a snarl and she bared her teeth at Boscha. She looked positively feral and, had she not been lost in a sea of pure rage, she might have noticed how her friends were staring at her in utter shock.

Boscha, too, was gaping at her openly and some deeper part of Luz took great satisfaction in the fact that she could see a hint of fear in her eyes. The hyena lowered her ears and bore her teeth right back at Luz, clearly threatened. A growl of her own came rumbling out of Boshca’s throat, her lips quivering over her long fangs. 

They stood there, locked in a vicious staring contest, both silently daring the other to make the first move. To cave. To break. To so much as twitch the wrong way. They were one tiny trigger away from ripping into one another and Luz would make damn sure the other girl bled first!

Boshca’s eye twitched and it was all the invitation Luz needed. Her legs bunched beneath her, ready to leap, when a large paw landed roughly on her shoulder and yanked her back. She stumbled and caught herself just in time to see Boscha being shoved in the opposite direction. By none other than Amity Blight. The cloudy haze of her feral anger dissipated in an instant and Luz took a deep, shuddering breath, startled by her own behaviour. She looked up to find golden eyes staring into her with such intensity that her breath caught.

Amity had intervened.

She was standing there, arms folded now that she had successfully separated her from Boscha and was watching her with this strange look Luz couldn’t quite decipher. Not her usual glare or frown but with something different. Something curious. Almost… impressed? Whatever the look was, it fell with the rest of her face into an annoyed frown when Boscha growled angrily at her back. Amity rolled her eyes upwards in a silent prayer for strength before turning away from Luz to look at Boscha instead.

“What the _fuck_ , Blight? I was in the middle of something here!” Boscha snapped. Amity gave her a very unimpressed look, eyes lidded and brows raised like she thought Boscha the biggest fool she’d ever seen. Boscha glared back at her furiously but Amity seemed entirely unaffected, her ears up and relaxed, arms still crossed.

“Looks to me like you were in the middle of getting yourself suspended,” she said. “If the dean hears about -.”

“Mind your own business, I can handle the damn dean!” Boshca hissed back. She paused for a second before that smug sneer, that Luz so wanted to punch, slipped back onto her face. “He wouldn’t do anything to me anyway. _He_ knows better.” The way she said that, eyeing Amity like she knew something the rest of them didn’t, was a clear threat. Amity, however, apparently couldn’t care less. She rolled her eyes at Boscha and glowered at her.

“Oh yes and I’m sure your _father_ would love to hear all about how you _attacked a herbivore_ and then threatened a smaller predator in the middle of the cafeteria with a huge audience.” She propped an elbow in the corner of her arm and casually gestured with her paw to indicate the crowd around them. Her eyes never left Boscha as the hyena looked around at all the students who were very clearly watching the spectacle and whispering amongst themselves. To Luz’s surprise, Boscha’s ears flattened nervously against her head. She eyed the crowd for a moment before huffing in annoyance and shooting a glare at Amity.

“You’re a real bitch sometimes, you know that?” She snarled before stalking away, elbowing her way through the crowd to vanish from the cafeteria in a hurry. Amity ignored her entirely, turning instead to look back down at Luz, one eyebrow raised at her curiously. 

There was a long pause as they stared at each other, Luz’s brows furrowed and jaw set defiantly. She may not be proud of how she’d lost her temper but she wouldn’t apologise for standing up for her friend either. Then Amity seemed to relax, tension Luz hadn’t noticed flooding from her shoulders with a heavy sigh. She turned to leave but paused, back facing Luz.

“You should learn to pick your battles,” she said, glancing at her over her shoulder briefly and then Luz saw her eyes flick to Willow. For just a moment, so fast Luz almost thought she’d imagined it, pain flickered in those golden orbs and she seemed like she might want to say more. Then it was gone and she slipped away without another word, leaving Luz utterly baffled. What had _that_ been about? And why had she given Boscha hell but let Luz so easily off the hook? She’d expected a lecture of some kind from the uptight girl. For Amity to scold her for being a reckless idiot or something. Instead she’d almost seemed like she was trying to be… helpful.

What the heck was Amity Blight’s deal?

With the show clearly over, the rest of the students went back to their dinners, though Luz could still hear them chattering away to each other about the whole incident. It would be all over the school by morning, she was sure. Deflating visibly, she let out a long sigh and turned to her friends. They were still staring at her in wide eyed shock and she cleared her throat uncomfortably. As she moved forward to help Gus clean Willow up, she saw the girl flinch back ever so slightly and her heart clenched painfully in her chest. She grimaced and looked away, rubbing shamefully at her arm.

She knew Willow was scared of predators. It was a deep rooted fear from her childhood. Gus had explained to Luz that Willow had no memory of why she was so afraid of them. Just that the fear was one she couldn’t control. It had been a shock to all of them when she’d been perfectly okay in Luz’s company the day they had met and Gus had theorised that Luz was perhaps far too sweet and fluffy to be intimidating to anyone, even Willow. 

But around any other predators, Willow would cower. She would hang back and become silent, withdrawing into herself and hunching in an attempt to make herself seem smaller and less noticeable. Whatever had happened to her had scarred her deeply. Emotionally and physically. Luz had often seen Willow subconsciously rubbing at the jagged marks on her cheek when she was nervous around another predator and she was doing it now as she looked at Luz. It broke her heart.

Sensing Luz’s obvious discomfort, Gus gently nudged Willow with his elbow and she jumped, looking down to see Gus gesturing towards Luz with his head, eyes wide and frowning. Luz watched them from the corner of her eye and saw how Willow seemed to exhale slowly before she approached her. The caution in her steps and the slight tremor in her hoof as she rested it on her shoulder were not lost on Luz and made her throat tighten painfully.

“A-are you ok?” Willow asked quietly. Luz swallowed hard past the dry lump in her throat and gave Willow a weak, tremulous smile.

“I’m sorry you guys had to see that. I just... can’t stand bullies like her,” she murmured, eyes downcast as she squeezed her own arm. Her damn tail had snaked its way around her feet again too. God, she was such a baby. They would hate her now for sure. Leave her. There was no way her two friends, both herbivores, would want to spend time around her now that they’d seen all that...

“It’s ok, Luz.” Her head whipped up when Gus gently set his paw on her other shoulder to give it a comforting pat and Willow’s hoof tightened where it was still resting. “We get it. Boscha knows how to get under people’s fur. It’s kind of her whole thing.”

A glimmer of hope flickered to life somewhere in Luz’s swirling belly and her weak little smile grew slightly more genuine. Maybe they wouldn’t bail on her straight away after all… She was pretty sure she’d definitely hurt their opinions of her but if Willow could still be this close, even if she was a little nervous, then maybe she could still fix it.

“Yeah… Boscha is a real jerk,” she agreed with a light, strained chuckle. Her friends nodded in agreement and Luz hoped that she wasn't the only one that felt the tension ease a little. She could still fix this. She _would_. She wasn’t about to lose the first friends she’d ever had over a stupid episode.

None of them were very hungry after their confrontation with Boscha and Willow desperately needed to get cleaned up, so she and Gus said a quick goodnight to Luz and retreated to the herbivore dorms. Dorms Luz was not allowed to visit as a predator. She tried very hard not to read into that as she quietly made her way back to her own empty room. Of course Willow would go to her dorm to get cleaned up. All her stuff was there. It didn’t mean she was avoiding Luz.

Except it turned out that’s exactly what it meant. The next few days were spent listening to students whisper about her (which she decided she liked a whole lot less than being ignored) while she miserably ate alone, spent her afternoons alone and went to bed alone. Without her friends.

She’d texted them. She’d tried catching them in the halls. But there was always an excuse. Some reason they couldn’t meet her. Desperate, she’d tried looking for Willow in the gardens to talk to her but she never seemed to be there when Luz checked, even if work on the new flower beds was clearly being done. Gus, at least, didn’t seem to be actively avoiding her but he’d been Willow’s friend first and he was obviously trying to be there for her, so Luz didn’t get to see him much either.

How was she supposed to fix this if Willow wouldn’t even talk to her? Sighing heavily, Luz trudged her way to the theatre club, desperate for some sort of outlet. Something creative and physical that would help her ignore the whispers and pointing and general cloud of misery that had been following her around since the incident.

So of course when she walked into the theatre club with thoughts of prop building, painting and general creative bliss, the director asked her to leave almost immediately. The second she stepped into the room he flagged her down to explain that they needed to paint a large backdrop for their next stage production and someone needed to go get reference material. That someone being her since she was the newbie.

Grumbling to herself, Luz made her very pouty way to the library so she could look for dumb books on forestry and landscapes or whatever. It wasn’t like she’d been looking forward to the club, where people were friendly and generally pretty nice. It’s not like she’d wanted to have a bit of fun after a pretty awful week. This was fine too.

At least the library was a nice place to visit. With its towering shelves fit to bursting with books of all kinds and tall windows that sent gorgeous sunlight lancing across the many work tables, the space was easily one of Luz’s favourites in the school. She’d happily spent quite a number of hours there, catching up on her schoolwork with her friends’ help. A grimace twisted across her muzzle and she shook her head rapidly to clear the gathering gloom that thought brought on. There was no time to be down in the dumps! She had a mission. A noble quest for the theatre club and wallowing in self pity wouldn’t help her complete it!

Strolling through the aisles in search of the key items she needed to finish her fetch quest, Luz paused at a familiar voice drifting from somewhere nearby. Her ears perked at the sound of gentle laughter and, like was so often the case in her life, her curiosity got the better of her. Time to investigate! She was still on a mission though and missions required stealth, so she snuck her way to the edge of the shelf and poked her head carefully around its edge, only for her eyes to widen at the sight before her.

There was Amity Blight, sitting at one of the work tables with a young chicken who was clearly nowhere near old enough to be a student at Cherryton. Luz had to assume her mom worked at the school and her best guess would be the older chicken she’d seen at the library’s checkout counter. They were surrounded by colourful books, crayons and papers, most of which were covered in cute little drawings. 

And she was laughing. 

Amity Blight. Grumpy, brooding, confusing Amity Blight was laughing. Bright, musical laughter that made her large ears flutter and her eyes crinkle at the corners. It was so open and genuine that it took Luz’s breath away for a second. She found herself staring, mission totally forgotten, as the laughter died and they went back to amicably chatting while they doodled together.

It was clear they’d been there a while, if the number of papers and books around them were any indication, so Luz figured Amity was babysitting. It was such a… nice thing to do, which was totally out of character from everything she’d observed about the stoic older girl in the last two weeks. Not that she’d been watching _that_ closely or anything. But still, she never would have imagined seeing Amity hanging out with a little kid, eagerly scribbling away with crayons and genuinely enjoying herself. She looked so different. 

She was relaxed. She was _smiling_. 

It was kinda really adorable.

The chick seemed totally at ease with her, which would have been surprising, except Amity was so _good_ with her. All warm smiles and seemingly endless patience. This was an entirely new side to the bobcat and Luz was fascinated. Apparently Amity Blight had _layers_ and now Luz had to know more.

She watched as Amity reached up and playfully ruffled the feathers on the chick’s head, making the little girl giggle brightly and bat the large paw away. The interaction was so sweet and playful that Luz couldn’t help but clutch at her heart and let slip a very audible, drawn out “aaaaaw”.

Of course, given the size of her ears, Amity heard and her head snapped around so that she could lock startled eyes on Luz. Well, nothing for it now. She’d been caught and her stealth mission had just turned into an upfront reconnaissance. She grinned nervously at having been caught, giving a little wave as she stepped out from behind the bookshelf and Amity’s entire face dropped into a sour scowl.

“Ugh, it’s you,” she grunted.

“Amity!” She said, drawing out her name as she stepped towards the table to lean against it with one arm, in what she hoped was a casual pose. “Babysitting kids? Looks like this sour lemon drop has a hidden sweet center.” She shot her an awkward finger gun and chuckled weakly. Amity grimaced at her, the fur all around her neck fluffing up in what Luz had to guess was deep irritation but before she could say anything, the little chick giggled and poked at Amity’s side.

“Miss Amity, is she your friend? She’s funny!” Amity rolled her eyes where the little girl couldn’t see before smiling down at her gently.

“No, Wrennie, she’s not my friend. In fact,” she speared Luz with a sharp look. “She was _just leaving_.” The annoyance rolling off her might have scared anyone else but it only motivated Luz further. She knew better. She’d seen the truth under Amity’s prickly exterior and there was no going back. Amity Blight was soft and Luz Noceda was intrigued. Forget fetch quests and side missions. She had something far more important to do now. Her new mission? 

Befriend Amity Blight.

Her first step in said mission? Completely ignoring Amity’s very obvious hints to leave and snooping over the pictures scattered across the table instead. She leaned across the desk to look and grinned at the adorable scribblings. They were a mix of childish doodles and some genuinely good art. So Amity could draw. Another interesting little layer to her. 

As she scanned over the drawings, Luz realised there seemed to be a common theme amongst the more simple ones. They all featured a little pink rabbit with what appeared to be a thin sword held in his hands. Glancing over at one of the nearby books, she saw that same pink rabbit and realised it was not a sword but a needle. Otabin the Bookmaker. She looked up at Wrennie and smiled at her brightly.

“These are really good! Did you draw all this?” She asked and Wrennie’s eyes positively lit up with glee.

“Yes! Miss Amity has been teaching me. We were reading Otabin and she said we could draw him some new friends together!” _Dios Mio_ , that was adorable. Luz looked up at Amity and smirked at her, raising an eyebrow smugly. The bobcat’s fur was ruffling up even further now, ears twitching rapidly and she couldn’t quite meet Luz’s eye. She was embarrassed! This just kept getting cuter. She turned her eyes back to the chick and smiled at her warmly.

“Well that’s really nice of you, Wrennie. Everyone needs some friends, right?” She was still grinning at the chick but she could see Amity’s ears lower and her whiskers twitch from the corner of her eye. She didn’t need to look to know Amity knew she was really talking to her. “Do you think you could draw a picture of _Miss Amity_ for me?” The little chick gasped excitedly and nodded before snagging a clean page to draw on. She bent over it and concentrated on her drawing, leaving Luz to turn to Amity who was glowering at her furiously.

“ _Really_? What are you even doing here?” She hissed, her voice lowered so she wouldn’t attract Wrennie’s attention. Luz leaned over the table to prop her elbow there and rested her chin on her paw, tilting her head at Amity innocently.

“I was just looking for some books for the theatre club when I spotted you and thought I’d come say hi,” she said casually and Amity scoffed at her.

“Thought you’d spy from around the shelves like a creep you mean.” It was Luz’s turn for her to fur puff up at her neck and she chuckled uncomfortably. A quiet thumping sound caught her ear and she flinched internally. Oh geez, there went her tail again. Bonus mission! Talk to hide the sound of the stupid thing.

“It’s just nice to see you loosen up a little,” she said, grinning to cover her embarrassment. “I don’t think I’ve seen you smile like that the entire time I’ve been here. You always seem so stressed out and… kinda lonely.” Amity’s ears lowered and she looked away, a frown creasing her brow.

“You don’t know anything about me,” she said quietly. An awkward silence stretched between them, broken only by the happy scribbles and hum coming from Wrennie. Luz worried she’d maybe pushed too far because she'd clearly hit a nerve of some kind. She wasn’t exactly used to making friends and she knew she had a tendency to get ahead of herself sometimes. Had she overstepped? She wanted to say something. Apologise maybe. But what could she do to fix it? Heck, she didn't even know how to fix the rift that had formed between her and the friends she already had. Before she could think of some way to clear the air though, Wrennie sat up and whipped out the paper she’d been doodling on for them to see.

“Finished!” She cried, voice full of youthful confidence and joy that drew them from their uncomfortable moment. Luz and Amity both turned to look at the completed drawing and Luz had to swallow a snort, covering her mouth with a paw to hold in the loud laugh that threatened to burst out of her. Her cheeks puffed up with the effort and her eyes watered with her suppressed laughter.

Wrennie was proudly holding up a drawing of what looked like a fluffy brown puffball with big pointy ears, tiny arms and legs and a little stubby tail. It was clearly meant to be Amity as Wrennie had given the puffball her signature half-up hairdo and her bright yellow eyes. Standing right beside the fluffy Amity was a similarly puffy little Luz and Wrennie had drawn them holding hands, a single pink heart hovering between them.

“I drew you being friends!” Wrennie declared triumphantly and Luz thought she might die from keeping in her laughter at this point. Amity’s fur was so ruffled with embarrassment that she was a dead ringer for the drawing and it was all Luz could do not to collapse into a wheezing mess. Amity’s ears had flattened to her head, eyes wide open and twitching. She looked absolutely livid and utterly adorable. This was exactly what Luz had needed after the awful beginning of her week.

Maybe it wouldn't seem like it to anyone else, but this felt like a good start. Like she'd made some sort of connection here that she could build off of. Amity looked mad, sure, but now Luz knew she hid how she was really feeling under that angry mask and it seemed like Luz might have managed to loosen it just a little. All it would take was a bit of tugging to get under it completely.

Somewhere, hidden deep under her indignation, Luz could tell Amity was amused. The tiniest hint of a smile tugging at her lips as she tried to maintain her frown was all the proof she needed. It gave her hope for the situation she was in with Willow because if she could make a connection with Amity Blight of all people, then surely she could fix things with her friend.

With a monumental effort to hold in her snickering, Luz took the offered drawing so she could admire it more closely.

“This is perfect!” She said honestly and grinned at Wrennie. “Do you mind if I keep it?” Wrennie beamed at her and nodded.

“Sure!” She said happily and took the picture when Luz handed it back.

“Thanks! But art this good needs to be signed,” she said. Wrennie giggled and scribbled her name across the bottom before handing it back to Luz. She looked up at Amity and grinned at her broadly. “I’m totally hanging this on my wall.”

Amity’s eyes narrowed at her dangerously but she couldn’t say anything for fear of hurting Wrennie’s feelings and Luz, sensing now might be a good time to quit while she was ahead, stepped back from the table to leave.

“Well, I gotta run. Those books aren’t gonna deliver themselves. Thanks for the drawing, Wrennie and I’ll see you around, Amity,” she rushed out, tossing a set of finger guns at her before she turned and scampered away to hide amongst the bookshelves, leaving the steaming bobcat to glare at her retreating back.

Mission: Befriend Amity Blight is a go!

* * *

Haha I was so eager to post this I forgot to put an authors note. Whoooops.

So there's a ton to unpack in this one and I hope you guys enjoy it! Luz is such a fun character to write. She's complex and creative and so dramatic! She's an absolute bean and I love her. Also Wrennie totally ships Lumity

Julip made some godamn amazing art and I added an extra one at the end lol. Go give her love on instagram, she deserves it!

 **Words directly from Julip:** Angry Luz is my new religion


End file.
